Well, it has been a while folks! As a few of you know, I started to work for bit-tech so all the builds I did last year were either for content for the website or I didn't have time to do a proper build log. Now, I have left my job there and I work for Alphacool instead as the UK and US rep!

As such, my builds are my own again, so I can do proper build logs!

The first build:

Yes, that is correct. RGB. I am not a huge fan of RGB, but as everything is RGB at the moment I thought I would embrace it. Afterall, I have done things in the past that included RGB lighting, but I usually just set all the colours to one and leave it at that.

So, First things first.

Hardware pron:

A huge thanks goes out to Cooler Master for this project, seriously, I was just chilling out one day having some food and I got a message asking if I fancied doing a build. Cooler Master sorted out pretty much everything (bar a processor). They offered their cooling too, but obviously, I want to use Alphacool as I am now staff. Once again, a huge thank you guys!

This is what turned up:

So, let's go through some of it... First of all, the ASUS stuff! Now, as some of you may know, ASUS are one of my favourite sponsors, they help me out a lot and I meet the team a few times a year at events and they're always top folks. However, for this build, ASUS Taiwan dealt with the motherboard and one of the 1070s who I have never met! (I was meant to, but I ended up in hospital whilst in Taiwan!!)

The motherboard is the ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming. This is the first Z370 board I have had and it is rather tasty.

As always, the Strix board is quite aggressive and has some nice details, I like the hidden m.2 slot for instance.

I was surprised there weren't more USB ports on the back of the board, but I have a 12 port and an 8 port powered USB hub anyway, so that doesn't matter to me!

mmmmmmmm.... socket.

As mentioned, ASUS TW sent me 1 x 1070 Strix for this build.... "but there are 2", I hear you cry. Yes... remember when I said ASUS are babes? they sent me one a while back for another build and as always, I repurpose everything that I can

I was really struggling to find a processor for this build. Until very recently I would only have a few pounds a month to myself to spend and most of that would go on paint, tools and other items so a new processor was going to be a big hit for me. I did think about doing the build without a processor, but whilst talking to my guys at ASUS, they mentioned they had an 8700k that I could have! Mental.

So, that is the motherboard, GPUs and CPU sorted - I think this is going to be a beast!

For the SSD and the RAM, Cooler Master managed to get Apacer on board with me, this is the first time I have used Apacer for a build so a huge thanks for supporting me!

As always, I am as honest as possible and I am not sure about the aesthetics of this memory, but, that is why I mod things! I will make them something I like. If everything was perfect, there would be no point in modding it!

Once I had popped the ram into the slots, it does look a lot more pleasing to me - What do you folks think?

I really do like the SSD however, like, I NEED this pattern somehow. I might have to change the panther to a Unicorn though just to fit in with the theme

Now, let's get onto the case! I was asked if I wanted an H500P or the Cosmos C700P. Now, I REALLY like the cosmos, but I know a lot of my modding friends are working on them, so I thought I would go for this one instead.

ooooh, I made a gif!

So, this is the case! when I took these pictures, I had no idea what I was going to do with this, in fact, I still don't really, but I certainly have a theme now!

These vents are not going to be black once I have finished with them.

In fact, the whole case needs to change colour... and I am not sure about this layout for me either!

The PSU cover is great... but... I doubt I will keep the PSU here...

A lot of people love this case because of the huuuuuuuuge fans. Well, I don't think I will be keeping them! Sorry!! I am a big fan <- fan... get it? Of 120mm fans so I will be using those.

So, I want to RGB all of the things. I don't particularly like RGB, so I thought I would go all in for it and make my PC look like a unicorn farting rainbows.

Obviously, I am going to be using Alphacool for the liquid cooling, but I will go through the parts I have chosen for this build at a later date.... but I think I have plenty of fittings!

So, the first task? stripping down the case - how far can a case be stripped? well... very.

This is where I am going to leave it for now, I have ideas. you can see a rather big clue as to what the idea is here

For now though, I am going to leave you with this... Yes, I did buy this costume thing just for this build.

Thanks princess! I have some little ideas, I want to try and make it as gaudy as possible with LEDs strips and what not.... Maybe I need to learn how to spraypaint a mist of different colours too... I want it look like an RGB factory has gone haywire.

Thanks princess! I have some little ideas, I want to try and make it as gaudy as possible with LEDs strips and what not.... Maybe I need to learn how to spraypaint a mist of different colours too... I want it look like an RGB factory has gone haywire.

Talk to Bneg about Kameleon paint. There are paints out there that colour shift

This makes me smile. And +100 for dressing up as a unicorn, that makes it even better.

But the win for me is use of the word fart. There is simply nothing funnier upon this entire planet than a fart....

As for chameleon? if it's wrap-able then wrap it then just clear it with some cheap clear. I experimented with the vinyls a few years ago on a never finished TVR project but the front panel of that Dell looked incredible, especially in the light. It also costs pennies VS tons for paint. Seriously, it's one of the most complex and expensive finishes you can do, if you do it properly..

IIRC - KO seal, primer, black base, chameleon in intercoat, then lots of clear. And the thing is? once you clear coat those vinyls that cost about three quid there is no difference.

__________________"Those really high 20 series prices are just place holders"

Whilst the weather was still rubbish, I decided to at least start on the waterblocks.

Alphacool NexXxoS GPX blocks this time, for my next build, I will be using the new Alphacool blocks, they're rather sexy!

One thing I do like about these blocks is how the bags are colour coded, it makes it so much easier to know which pads go where on the instructions.

First thing I did was just a quick test fit of the card. Always worth doing if you're going to mod a block!

Fits perfectly! Yay!

Have some (anti) peel porn

[MEDIA=youtube]0oVDLJB35m8[/MEDIA]

We're going to be giving these blocks a quick blast with some paint, nothing too crazy, but still, I want to make sure that I mask off the areas that I need to.

Obviously, anything that touches the card I want to keep paint free. I won't be spraying the underside of the block, but when it gets sprayed some will inevitably get on it so as a precaution I taped the contact plates.

A quick coat of primer and a quick coat of white and I am done! Hopefully, they will dry in this horrible weather... seriously, this year sucks for me so far! I can't do anything outside!!!

The next job is to de-rivet the whole case. Quite a few of you are on my facebook (search davido_labido) so you will have seen the completed article, but here is the process!

first I took the lid off, I want to invert the case, so everything needs to be flipped.

I still want to floor to be the floor, this does mean I am actually making the case less useful for liquid cooling at the moment. The reason being is that the rad space at the top will be fouled by the PSU now. I might put a rad on the bottom though, I will see how it pans out.

So many rivets! This was around 50% of the way through the case...

As it had started to rain/snow/sleet/drop hellfire outside again, I had to resort to using sheers to cut the case in places where I needed to remove things.

My cutters are rubbish... it wasn't really worth doing, but it allowed me to test fit how the case would be!

early in the morning the following day, there was a little bit of sun! Wooooohooooo! time to do some work outside

First things first, clean up that horrible edge that the sheers made.

Then rivet the case all back together to make sure inverting it doesn't make it too unusable.

Yay! It worked!

Hmmmm, I am going to have to make a bracket to hold the PSU I think!

Also, some of the edges don't really go together properly, not a problem, I will make some makeshift brackets for now and then if they can be seen when I finish, I will make some nicer ones.

It all fits together! Yay. Well, time to drill out all the rivets again.... I want to change the colour of the case!

That is where I am going to leave it for today! Now a question for you....

... I have 3 blocks which one should I use in this build? The build will be white and multi-coloured basically.